The need for consistency

I just helped a patron who was asking for some titles that are not available from within SLC. The problem was that he has a New Baltimore card. One of the items he wanted was available through Melcat, the other was available through OCLC. I explained to him that he needed to have a Chesterfield card in order for to request a book for him from outside the cooperative. He held up a book that he had just picked up from circulation that we apparently ordered for him through OCLC. I explained to him that we had been bending the rules to help people out, but with the new statewide system we are not able to that. It would make no sense for me to place holds for two books for him where one would come here (the OCLC one) and the other would go to New Baltimore (the Melcat one). I explained to him that if he had a Chesterfield card I would be able to request both books for him, and both books would come here for pick-up. He seemed to kind of understand. I feel that for the sake of good customer service we need to all be saying the same thing. At our last meeting we talked about how most other libraries will only place OCLC requests for patrons with cards from that library. This situation is going to occur with increasing frequency. If we all consistently tell patrons that they need a Chesterfield card to request books from outside SLC, it will be much better than going back and forth.